Self-Confidence

1245: Posted Friday 2nd January

Edited by CJ Tointon

Each one of us, who is free to follow the Abolitionist approach and who lives according to the "non-use-of-animals" rule, must build a certain sort of self-confidence.  When addressing others on this tricky subject, we must be knowledgable and show a determination to educate, but we must also enjoy ourselves while doing it. 

This is the sort of confidence abolitionists must have and it's probably only possible if we know the other person is comfortable with the discussion.  Good communication skills are needed.  However much you and I disagree on these serious matters, we must still be able to pass muster with each other and maintain mutual respect without any hint of hectoring.

If you know exactly where you stand on such matters as the "non-use-of-animals", then your manner can remain calm and unthreatening.  You’d use the same manner if you were teaching a child to read.   By doing it softly.  Perhaps slowly.  With endless patience.  But with the assurance that they’ll get it - eventually.

With the concept of "Animal Rights", we are bringing others around to an entirely new attitude in which there is no using-of-animals.  We are letting them into a world that’s obvious to us, but very foreign to them.

The big difference between teacher and child is that one can read and the other can't - yet.  It's not much different for seasoned vegans.  We can 'read' already and they can’t - yet.  They might never have given  much thought to the connection between ethics and animals.  For most people, veganism is nothing more than a health issue.

Enter the 'ethics' mob.  As a vegan, I must appear as just an ordinary person who you might casually get to know.   I must be known to you as 'OK' (reasonable, fair minded, not likely be the hectoring type) and then I stand a chance.  The omnivore might listen, perhaps out of politeness, perhaps out of curiosity, but hopefully without any fear.  My aim (before I even open my mouth) would be to try to establish that I am this sort of person.  And then (if I get the chance) I need to be clear about where I stand so, my arguments can be fully and freely discussed.  First and foremost, vegans must be believable. Others must know that we speak from experience and perhaps with some authority.  This means that what we say must be spoken truly and confidently, otherwise we'll just make them nervous and they'll want to walk away.

What if a person looks to animal advocates/activists for a lead but finds that no one can pass muster?   

What if every vegan they meet is a hector?  Then they wouldn't feel comfortable talking to any Vegans.  This leaves them out in the cold, but it also lets them off the hook, making it easier for them to return to business-as-usual. 

In this unfair world, perhaps it’s not very fair on us. Nevertheless, as activists, we have to be squeaky clean.  No dodgy areas, otherwise we crumble or we’re 'seen through'.  Now, you might say that if we have any double standards at all (and we all have our own double standards) we must be prepared to own up to them or justify them.  If we don’t, we may be shown up.  In other words, if we won't do this properly, we can't expect others to.

Admittedly, the principles of veganism are very high, but they need to be.  They have to withstand a whole society that's into a massive routine of  "animal attack"!  Veganism seems to adopt high principles if only because our species has stooped so low.  We have, over many generations, become nothing short of 'slave-masters'.  Perhaps in the earlier stages of human development there was some justification for corralling and killing animals, because they were thought to be nutritionally essential for our survival.  But for a long time, Science has upended that idea.  We are more knowledgeable today.  But the purpose of knowledge is to act on it, not ignore it.  We now know that the high animal protein content of our food in the majority diet, is not only non-essential but positively harmful to human health.

Before anything else can move on for us as a species, we have to admit that we're a mutated species, prone to violence.  If we want to restore our true nature, if we want to develop, we must face up to the inconvenience of living according to the non-violent principle. That means living as ethically as possible.  And vegan living is the obvious start.  Every other way involves violence.  There are no caveats or exceptions available.  There's just no other way around the ethical mess we've created for ourselves;  not to mention the ill health everywhere.  In the bigger picture, projected ahead, we can surely see our own amazingly intelligent species transforming, adapting to being less cruel and callous.  But for that to happen, there needs to be consensus.  We minorities have to be strong and romantic, for in the end, the majority must be wooed.  We must aim at a lot of people 'falling in love' with the idea, or at least becoming convinced about the no-use-animal principle.

Without this 'love affair', there won't be enough momentum for the message of non-violence to be heard over the din of speciesism and racism and a thousand other 'isms'. 
There's really only ONE attitude to be changed!  Put simply:  Address the problem of animal-use as if you're seeing them as co-sentient, sovereign individuals, as irreplaceable as we are.